Hi again,
You already helped me greatly to choose some books about Chicago and now I'm coming for dessert.
At this point of my planning I'm leaving here those itineraries from my list which are a bit more "off the beaten path", just in case any of them awake a suggestion, advice or alert to you. I'll try to update how it turned out to be at my return (somewhere in June)
Some of them are already filled with previous suggestions of yours, but just in case.
- Chicago History Museum on the southwest corner of Lincoln Park. On the way I'll look for the Charnley-Persky House Museum (house by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright) and the Archbishop's Residence which was used as the fictional Jadwin's residence in "The Pit", the 1903 novel by Frank Norris. Would Old town be worth a visit after the museum?
- Visit the magnificent hall of the Chicago Auditorium at Michigan Av and try later the bookstore at the nearby Fine Arts building.
- Take the Green line or the Metra and spend some time around the Oak Park streets crowded with Frank Lloyd Wright houses, including his own early home and studio. I'll do this trip during broad daylight, but I have to say that reading the news one gets the probably wrong idea that the Green line to Oak Park may become sort of a ightmare (I'll should stop reading the news and chill about it)
- Take the Metra south to Hyde Park and visit the University of Chicago, the Robie House and maybe take a general look of the former site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition from the Museum of Science surroundings. Daytime, of course
- Walk around the Loop and look for the legendary Chicago early skyscrapers; the Rookery, the Reliance Bld (now the Burnham hotel), the Monadnock Bld, Carson, Pirie & Scott department store, etc. (there are many self guided
tour maps on the internet if needed; also plenty of guided tours at CAF).
- One thing I'd love to do but I don't think is going to be possible is to visit the Chicago Board of Trade trading floor. There are CAF tours but not at the time I'm gonna be there.
That's it...so far